He who would travel happily must travel light.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery
French writer (1900 – 1944)
There’s a lot of truth in this little phrase. On a practical note, think about traveling by plane. On a recent trip I took only a carry-on bag. I managed to pack enough for the four days I was gone and avoided the stress of picking up luggage and maybe having it get lost. I hope I can manage to pack as light the next time I take a trip.
Now lets consider another type of travel; the life journey. It’s a little harder to pack light on this one. Some things are like lead weights in the bag; bitterness, unforgiveness, and envy are three of a long list. Then there are the things that aren’t so heavy but just take up a lot of space, like needless regrets and people and things we just can’t seem to let go of. Some people even insist on carrying other people’s baggage, making travel even more complicated and exhausting.
Prayer for Life Travel
Lord, help me pack my bags well, with only the things you know I need for the journey. Give me the courage to leave the unnecessary behind. Give me the strength to lay aside, once and for all, those heavy things that weigh me down. Finally, reveal to me any bags I carry that don’t belong to me. Set me free, dear Jesus, the Master of traveling light. Set me free to travel light. AMEN.
“Authority without wisdom is like a heavy axe without an edge,
fitter to bruise than polish.”
Ann Bradstreet (1612-1672)
I had a conversation with my daughter today in which I found myself giving her advice/encouragement. I’ve quickly realized that I need to take my own advice and make it even more a part of my everyday life.
1. Act like you feel confident especially when you don’t feel that way at all; it actually helps you become more confident.
2. Let yourself have some fun with whatever you are doing. You can work hard and try to do everything well and then one day you’re gone and no one remembers any of it. In the end what will really matter is that you’ve lived your life, really lived, and to do that you have to have some fun!
3. When working with children (of any age) every mistake you make can turn into an opportunity. In the way you handle mistakes you can model to kids that it’s OK to make mistakes; everyone does, even you. You can help kids take risks when you remind them of the fact that you make mistakes too and it’s really OK.
4. The Lord is your strength; never more apparent than when you feel uncertain and overwhelmed.
5. KISS….acronym for “keep it simple stupid!” I have found time and again that simple is more effective. When I try to get fancy, impressive, and ‘perfect’ is when I get in trouble. Simple is the way to go in nearly any situation. (I’d like to think of another word to substitute for ’stupid’ in that acronym…see #6.)
6. Talk nice to yourself, and talk yourself through the situation you’re faced with. Actually it was daughter who pointed out to me that I need to talk nice to myself rather than call myself a dummy or a ditz when I forget something or goof up in some way. “OK Nancy, you can write this blog, really…you’re smart….you can write…take a deep breath and go for it!”
With God’s help I shall listen to my own advice.
Help me Lord.
Help dear daughter.
Amen.
Sometimes I just feel like huddling in a corner with a blanket over my head for no particular reason. I’m tired of thinking and thinking about what I think, and don’t know what to make of lots of things and for some reason this bothers me so…..it’s just easier to hide.
The problem is though, that hiding very quickly becomes a habit. A habit that is not noticed at first, not cared about for a while, but eventually I wake up and realize that little by little this habit is killing me. Ah, it’s so much easier to sleep, but I choose life. And life cannot be lived under a blanket.
Rise up, O woman,
Throw off your blanket of shame!
The Light has come,
Now live again!
Hubby bought some malt balls. Great big ones. Thick chocolate surrounding the crunchy malted center. I decided to have one for desert. Within a minute of eating it I knew something was wrong. My throat was itchy and my face began to feel hot. Upon reading the ingredients on the package of those yummy looking maltballs I discovered that they contained crushed peanuts. Bad news. I have a severe allergy to nuts. So I quickly downed 3 Benedryl capsules and told myself that I should have known better than to eat something like that without checking the ingredients.So, what is the lesson here, other than the obvious one of ‘read the label before putting ANYTHING in my mouth’?
Things are not always what they appear to be. I couldn’t see those crushed peanuts, or taste them, or smell them. But there they were ready to poison me.
Just because something was safe once, or even many times, in your experience doesn’t mean that it won’t be quite the opposite at some other time. I’ve eaten plenty of malt balls before and never had any ill effects. I assumed that they were safe for me to ingest. But I didn’t check to find out for sure. Sometimes we run off and do things that seem good without checking with the One who knows for sure whether it is good for us or not. Sometimes those seemingly good things turn out to have a toxic effect upon our spirits, even if no visible bodily harm occurs. I don’t know about anyone else but I don’t want to wind up in the wrong place at the wrong time, or in the right place at the wrong time, or in the right place at the right time doing the wrong thing. That takes far more coordination than I can possibly muster, so I must depend upon God’s help.
We need to understand what is toxic to us personally, and remember that it might be something different for the person standing next to us. My husband loves peanut butter, but it would kill me to eat it. I can’t read novels that graphically describe violent acts or that are full of bad language. Reading stuff like that messes with my mind. Those popular romance novels don’t do me any good either.
Who would have thought that an innocent looking toxic malt ball could lead to so much insight?
Wasting Time
Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, making the most of the time, because the days are evil. So do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit, as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts, giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 4:15-20 NRSV
As part of my own Lenten journey I knew I was to give up playing games on the computer. I say I do it to ‘unwind’, but have had a nagging awareness that often I’m really just wasting time. I have found, of course, that there are other ways to unwind that are more profitable to me and I should probably just forgo the computer games on a permanent basis. (It is addicting….you can’t just play the game once or twice!) Time is precious; I realize that now more than ever having gone through the experience of thinking mine was running out. I do not want to be foolish, but rather want to make the most of the time given me.
I looked up the word debauchery (http://dictionary.reference.com/search?r=2&q=debauchery) wondering if I really knew what the word meant. I found one definition especially meaningful: (Archaic.) seduction from duty, allegiance, or virtue. There are many activities that we may engage in, including the playing of computer games, that could hardly be called “sinful” in and of themselves. It is when these activities begin to seduce us away from the things that we would be better off doing that the activities become problematic.
Prayer: Lord, help me to make wise choices in how I spend my time; that I may live to bring glory to Your Name. Amen.